Krabby Pattie IV - Return of the Colony

In a bee yard, far, far away....

When we last visited the empire of the bees, all was well.

I dropped in on the queendom to see if they were weathering the winter.  So far so good.

This time around, I replaced the Krabby Patties from last month with a new mixture.

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This time I added Honey-Bee-Healthy to the mix and really soaked the sugar with syrup.  The bees seemed to like the heavier syrup mix version.

They had eaten about 1/3d of the concoction, so I simply replaced the existing with a new patty.  This seems a bit wasteful for a beekeeper, but I really wanted to continue the experiment. 

Besides, rest assured that I will use the "old sugar" to make some new patties or some kind of supplemental feeding.  I may end up reconfiguring the candy board.  I also put some sticks into the bag instead of going through the hassle of sawing some wood pieces.

The rest of the process was the same as before.

My joy in this normal, non-vortex, winter, is that the bees are thriving and returning to full strength.

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My one fear is this - there is a mouse in one of my hives.

That's a whole other posting.  In short, it's not good.

But the weather was too cold to pull the hive apart in search of the critter. 

The mouse guard was in place but the creature had entered through some  crack or other entrance.

So until next time, I'll be watching that hive closely and praying for a 60 degree+ day to get rid of the mouse.

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